The temple in Jerusalem represented the six days of creation, with the Holy of Holies representing the first day, the veil representing the second and so on. This is one of the many new things I’ve learned from Margaret Barker in a book of hers that I’m reading at the moment – Temple Theology: An introduction (London, 2004).

She also says that there are basically two streams of thought in the Old Testament...

The people of Brynsiencyn probably think I’m a bit odd since every once in a while they see me walking my dog through the village muttering to myself as I go. Somebody who talks to himself on a regular basis surely can’t be all there. Except I’m not talking to myself but prayer walking – or maybe prayer dog-walking would be a better description!

We moved to the village some 20 months ago and since then I have been ...

Did the Reformation change Christendom? Surprisingly not is Stuart Murray’s answer in chapter 5 of Post-Christendom. Though the Protestant Reformation brought about much needed change to doctrine and many church practices, very little was done as far as the church’s connection to the state is concerned. ‘They refined it, fractured it and shifted the balance of power within it towards the secular a...

Under Christendom the church became the dominant force in society. Indeed by the 12^th century the church was able to exercise power over countries and their rulers in Western Europe. ‘No secular ruler could rival papal wealth or authority,’ says Stuart Murray in Post-Christendom as he paints a picture of a totalitarian church in the late medieval period (page 110). Dissent was not welcomed at all by this time...

There aren’t many Welsh speaking people in the world. There must be even fewer Welsh speakers who are blind. And we probably could count the number of blind Welsh speakers who are also Christians on the fingers of the hands of a typical Sunday afternoon Baptist chapel congregation in Llanfflewin. But however small that number they should still be able to read the Bible in their first language. This is why Cytun, the ecumenical body in Wales, has launched an appeal for the translation of the...